Sanjeev's articles What planners think. A review of a talk by Nicole Gurran I’m trying to understand the minds of urban planners. I came across this talk by an Australian academic in the field of urban planning, who has a book, “Australian urban land use planning: Principles, systems and practice“. She’s also got an article here: Affordable housing policy failure still being fuelled by flawed analysis. Also had a […] August 21, 2018August 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Rajneesh (Osho) created a myth that Abraham Lincoln’s father was a shoe maker I met someone today who thought that Abe Lincoln’s father was a cobbler. I had never heard about this so I’ve spent a few minutes to check. ALWAYS CHECK!! I examined the following books: GREAT AMERICAN PRESIDENTS: ABRAHAM LINCOLN by Louise Chipley Slavicek, 2004 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The Man Behind the Myths by STEPHEN B. OATES […] August 20, 2018August 20, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked The lying Hindutvas are at it again. This time a fake Rajaji “oath” to the Queen of England. Apparently this video is circulating on Whatsapp these days: At 3 minutes above not only is a voiceover put into Rajaji’s video, absurd words were put into it. TOTAL FAKE HINDUTVA NONSENSE. THE ACTUAL SWEARING IN SPEECH BELOW: Source: Speeches Of C. Rajagopalachari (Jan 1948- Jan 1950) SWEARING-IN CEREMONY. His Excellency the Governor-General made the following […] August 19, 2018August 19, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked A history of the Indian Liberal Party by B. D. Shukla, 1960 I chanced upon this book today and I’ve spent some time to OCR and convert it into RTF. The book discusses the history of the Indian Liberal Party that existed from 1918 to 1948. Download here. It is intriguing that this subdomain on archive.org (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.97555) has the word ERNET in it. Further, this book was originally […] August 19, 2018August 19, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked CONCLUSIVE evidence that the British DID NOT cut off any Indian weaver’s thumbs. Myth busted. I decided to conduct original research on this topic given the following FB comment in response to my blog post on Gurcharan Das’s views (see this) – screenshot below. This particular view, below, is quite a radical new invention (that the Queen was involved – which one?!!), but the more common one is that Dhaka weavers […] August 18, 2018August 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Gurcharan Das concluded that Britain’s colonial prosperity was NOT founded on the exploitation of India I’ve been sporadically writing on this issue and have never had time to sort out all relevant facts. [see my posts here and here. And, of course, Naoroji’s book makes a strong case. And Shashi Tharoor has been jumping up and down about this issue.] But this extract from India Unbound by Gurcharan Das is […] August 18, 2018August 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Gurcharan Das concluded that Britain’s colonial prosperity was NOT founded on the exploitation of India I’ve been sporadically writing on this issue and have never had time to sort out all relevant facts. [see my posts here and here. And, of course, Naoroji’s book makes a strong case. And Shashi Tharoor has been jumping up and down about this issue.] But this extract from India Unbound by Gurcharan Das is […] August 18, 2018August 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Atal Bihari Vajpayee – a much more devious man than I had thought Till today I had a relatively neutral view about Vajpayee, but after his death a number of disturbing things about him have started surfacing. Twitter has made it possible for people to share a lot of information. Presumably these pieces of information were already know but had somehow been glossed over. I’ve spent a few minute […] August 17, 2018August 17, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Howard Stern and Robin Quivers badmouthing India (2001). Much of it is true and Modi is not helping with his cow talk. India had a hopelessly deplorable image at least till relatively recently. This audio snippet, that is recirculating a 2001 talk between Stern and his co-host Robin Quivers, relates to the era when Delhi had the old airport and everything was in shambles. Now, clearly Stern is not racist in any way. After all, Robin is […] August 16, 2018August 16, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Fraser Anning has been very unfairly treated for his maiden speech I was intrigued by Fraser Anning’s maiden speech [Video here] and thought I’d review it including with annotations. I find upon detailed review that this man has been very unfairly maligned. I believe that in a free society DEMOCRATIC VOICES like him need to be heard. Any objections to his views can be debated on merit. I […] August 16, 2018August 16, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Freedom of speech is also a freedom to keep quiet It appears to me that the freedom to speak and freedom to keep quiet are opposite sides of the same coin. Freedom to speak is not compulsion to speak. This freedom to keep quiet is much broader than the right to silence to prevent self-incrimination. It is at the heart of the meaning of freedom […] August 15, 2018August 15, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Towards a theory of infrastructure – what is infrastructure and who should pay for it This has been a vexed issue that’s beset by close to utter confusion in the economics literature. I wrote about this issue here last year but I’m unable to locate any consistent first-principles approach to this question. The issue of infrastructure is closely inter-related to town planning and zoning. Unpacking the matter is now becoming […] August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Amazing that USA had constitutional prohibition on liquor. An object lesson for everyone in public policy. This! This is a truly monumental documentary. Even the most obtuse and confused can completely understand the basic principles of economics and public policy by just watching this riveting documentary. EVERYONE WITH AMBITIONS FOR PUBLIC POLICY OR PUBLIC LIFE SHOULD SEE THIS. (I watched it on Netflix but it is freely available online). Original link August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Austrian economists and Ayn Rand Objectivists can benefit from standard i.e. “neo-classical” (classical liberal) economics I’m copying this article from the GMU website to my blog, since it is hard to read it on that website. Also I’ll be able to annotate it here, and highlight any important comments. Thanks to Joyson Fernandes for bringing it to my attention. [Btw, do see Caplan’s lectures here and – of course, I […] August 8, 2018August 9, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Austrian economists and Ayn Rand Objectivists can benefit from standard i.e. “neo-classical” (classical liberal) economics I’m copying this article from the GMU website to my blog, since it is hard to read it on that website. Also I’ll be able to annotate it here, and highlight any important comments. Thanks to Joyson Fernandes for bringing it to my attention. [Btw, do see Caplan’s lectures here and – of course, I […] August 8, 2018August 9, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Please download and share my free book on economics for children: Seeing the Invisible Yesterday I’ve published the first edition of Seeing the Invisible. Please download from here: http://efc.sabhlokcity.com/download-free/ From the data, around 65 copies of Seeing the Invisible were downloaded yesterday. Over 170 people visited the book’s website.  That’s a pretty good start – now I look forward to feedback from at least a few persons and will […] August 5, 2018August 6, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Was Jane Jacobs a force for the good or for evil? I showed here how John Ruskin exercised a baneful influence on liberty in the 19th century – particularly on urban landscapes. Jane Jacobs was a similarly influential figure in the 20th century. The jury has been out on Jane Jacobs for a while. I was keenly intersted in this article: How Should We Interpret Jane Jacobs? published yesterday, […] August 1, 2018August 1, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Who owns these primarily online news portals in India? I’m trying to figure out who owns what – so I’m more aware of where I get any articles published in the future. Here’s an initial list: scroll.in: US-based digital publishing company Scroll Media Inc founded in 2012 by Samir Patil (CEO), an alumnus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. – details. Indian alexa rank 150 […] July 29, 2018July 29, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Chronology of the slippery slope – or the descent of the West into socialism The West has been led by progressives for over a hundred years now, and it is very hard to distinguish between various political parties – all of them being far to the left of the classical liberal position. Here are some key milestones in the descent of the West into a socialist quagmire. Note that […] July 27, 2018July 28, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Civil Service Reforms – by Dr G. Sundaram. I thank Dr G Sundaram IAS (retd.) 1962 batch for sending me his article on civil service reforms (PDF here, Word version here). I’ll review and comment on it separately. Civil Service Reforms – by Dr G. Sundaram (Gujarat – 1962) At the outset, I must say that Civil Service Reforms is difficult subject and […] July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Moving governments towards price discriminatory taxation and fees – using an Opportunity Card In 2009 I published two articles in Freedom First outlining a theory of public finance underpinned by a perfectly price discriminating model. These articles are available here: first, second. The real issue with price discrimination remains the cost of assessing the individual willingness to pay and hence the potential consumer surplus (or loss – if […] July 24, 2018July 25, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked A response to objections to Modi’s reforms of the bureaucracy I’ve been asked my views on this article: Subservience over Efficiency: The Prime Minister & Civil Service ‘Reforms’ – JAWHAR SIRCAR This matter has been also discussed in other recent articles, so I’ll provide a consolidated view including on matters raised also in the following articles: Lateral Entry into Senior Bureaucracy: A Flawed Approach – K. ASHOK VARDHAN […] July 21, 2018July 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked What SBP needs at this stage – and urgently I’m reverting back to SBP issues after a month’s break. Will continue to focus mainly on writing, but have shared a few thoughts with SBP leadership. My suggestion has been that the four main leaders in urban areas work together to build a movement against the BJP government. It needs to have an economic focus – something […] July 16, 2018July 16, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked The case of AT Exports and why the Wasans need to look at the bigger picture Came across In their shoes – a documentary on Netflix. I’ve uploaded a small section of the documentary here: My tweets: @sabharwalatul Excellent leather documentary that I just saw on Netflix. Not sure whether you are interested, but India’s overall story is a huge thing to be documented. India is a colossal failure of public […] July 1, 2018July 1, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Where Milton Friedman fell short in his assessment of “The Role of Government in Education” (1955) In this 1955 article, which informs Freedom and Capitalism (which was published in 1962), Friedman comes close – even alludes to tangentially in a few places – to the solution I’ve been talking about for two decades, and wrote about in my 2008 book, BFN. But he does allow a range of convoluted and indefensible […] July 1, 2018July 1, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Why leaders matter MUCH MORE than culture or religion My FB note: There are books (e.g. by Robert Wilken) that claim that Christianity has something to do with liberty. That this claim is false is clearly seen when we examine the progress of the following countries over the past century. Christianity did nothing to make these countries more free or to create a demand […] June 28, 2018June 28, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Modi uses my copy of the Emergency newspaper cutting – pretty weird Modi issued half page ads in newspapers yesterday. Prominently featured in the ad was the scanned copy of the front page of a newspaper of that day that I had kept with me at the end of Class X. I was in Hyderabad when the Emergency was declared. We moved to Jullundur just a few […] June 28, 2018June 28, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked The miserable economics education of Indian Administrative Service officials A so-called economist who doesn’t understand economics can obviously never explain economics to the people. We had professors of economics at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie in 1982-84, who failed to teach the most basic concepts about the market and the price system. That’s because they did not understand these […] June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Modern economics begins with Hayek, who made the invisible hand visible Adam Smith identified the invisible hand but had no idea how it works. People like Marx then went off on a complete tangent using the labour theory of value. Menger, Jevons and Walras demolished the labour theory of value in the 1860s and 1870s. They were getting close enough but still did not understand how […] June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked From economics to action – my 1999 draft paper – to be completed one day While completing my doctoral studies I started writing this paper for potential publication in some academic journal. Due to extreme RSI the paper never got completed. Note that I not only had extreme RSI from around end-1998 due to intensive typing for India Policy Institute, but also had to complete my dissertation by April 1999 […] June 23, 2018June 23, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Discovery of a brilliant liberal scientist of Indian origin – C.S. Prakash Due to the accident of his commenting on my TOI agriculture article, I found time to study the work of CS Prakash, and I’m deeply impressed. I wonder how I missed getting to know about him and his work till now. I suppose I’ve paid more attention to economists of Indian origin than to scientists […] June 23, 2018June 23, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Looking for serious money to support a full-fledged training institute for SBP The RSS took decades of “prachar” to spread its message to the people. Our party’s ideology is entirely different but we should probably follow the same long-term strategy to create an umbrella of paid pracharaks across the length and breadth of India. I am now looking for financial support and land to establish a training […] June 21, 2018June 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked My next planned TOI articles on behalf of SBP After five articles in TOI I’m now planning a few more. My plan, in chronological order: a) To send by mid-August: On mining reform b) To send by mid-November: On education reform c) To send by mid-February 2019: On water reform d) To send by mid-May 2019: On urban planning reform I’ve already finished one […] June 21, 2018June 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Response to comments on my TOI agriculture article I have compiled below some comments on my agriculture article. And a brief response, as appropriate, in blue. Very few sensible people in India, as these comments show. ===SOURCE TIMES OF INDIA == Raghavan Srinivasan: I agree with the author that the Government must be kept off from agriculture. Farming if done well will not need […] June 21, 2018June 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked How India’s senior most IAS officers lack even the basic knowledge of incentives I’m avoiding India and trying to focus on some writing, but once in a while I might still make a comment or two about the mess that is India. In this video, recorded yesterday, I outline my experience with some senior IAS officers who continue to display deep-rooted ignorance about the role incentives play in society. No wonder […] June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked My agriculture reform article in TOI and comment by Kisaan Putra Andolan I’m not engaging with India at the moment, being on a sabbatical + I wish to focus my time/ mind on some essential books and training material. However, two things worth noting: a) My fifth centrepiece article in TOI (and my sixth in all, since 2007): Get out of farmers’ way: In the end government […] June 19, 2018June 19, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked A paid Pracharak system for Swarna Bharat Party I’ve alluded to this here, but a bit more detail, below. A key gap we have in India is the insufficient supply of highly trained trainers for liberalism. I intend to set up a training institute for SBP in the coming year/s, which would comprise a group of highly paid proponents of economics and liberty. It […] June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Reverting to book writing after a gap of over seven years My sabbatical finally gives me breathing space to read and write. For seven years my work has been almost entirely in support of political liberalism in India. This has included massive amount of time and effort to build and manage Swarna Bharat Party. Now, that is behind me – at least for the foreseeable future. […] June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Why am I on a political sabbatical? – a video blog In this video blog I respond to a number of people who’ve written to me, to clarify matters. My key message: I’ve not resigned from Swarna Bharat Party nor do I intend to do so. I expect everyone involved in promoting liberalism in India to take this forward to the best of their ability. Original […] June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked On sabbatical I’m taking a sabbatical from all Indian issues. Although I remain a member of Swarna Bharat Party, I will no longer lead the party or engage politically. Comments on this blog have been disabled. I want to stop thinking about India completely. Therefore, I will now unfriend all Indian friends on social media, including leaders […] June 17, 2018June 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Loading Load more
What planners think. A review of a talk by Nicole Gurran I’m trying to understand the minds of urban planners. I came across this talk by an Australian academic in the field of urban planning, who has a book, “Australian urban land use planning: Principles, systems and practice“. She’s also got an article here:Â Affordable housing policy failure still being fuelled by flawed analysis. Also had a […] August 21, 2018August 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rajneesh (Osho) created a myth that Abraham Lincoln’s father was a shoe maker I met someone today who thought that Abe Lincoln’s father was a cobbler. I had never heard about this so I’ve spent a few minutes to check. ALWAYS CHECK!! I examined the following books: GREAT AMERICAN PRESIDENTS: ABRAHAM LINCOLN by Louise Chipley Slavicek, 2004 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The Man Behind the Myths by STEPHEN B. OATES […] August 20, 2018August 20, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The lying Hindutvas are at it again. This time a fake Rajaji “oath” to the Queen of England. Apparently this video is circulating on Whatsapp these days: At 3 minutes above not only is a voiceover put into Rajaji’s video, absurd words were put into it. TOTAL FAKE HINDUTVA NONSENSE. THE ACTUAL SWEARING IN SPEECH BELOW: Source:Â Speeches Of C. Rajagopalachari (Jan 1948- Jan 1950) SWEARING-IN CEREMONY. His Excellency the Governor-General made the following […] August 19, 2018August 19, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A history of the Indian Liberal Party by B. D. Shukla, 1960 I chanced upon this book today and I’ve spent some time to OCR and convert it into RTF. The book discusses the history of the Indian Liberal Party that existed from 1918 to 1948. Download here. It is intriguing that this subdomain on archive.org (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.97555) has the word ERNET in it. Further, this book was originally […] August 19, 2018August 19, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CONCLUSIVE evidence that the British DID NOT cut off any Indian weaver’s thumbs. Myth busted. I decided to conduct original research on this topic given the following FB comment in response to my blog post on Gurcharan Das’s views (see this) – screenshot below. This particular view, below, is quite a radical new invention (that the Queen was involved – which one?!!), but the more common one is that Dhaka weavers […] August 18, 2018August 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Gurcharan Das concluded that Britain’s colonial prosperity was NOT founded on the exploitation of India I’ve been sporadically writing on this issue and have never had time to sort out all relevant facts. [see my posts here and here. And, of course, Naoroji’s book makes a strong case. And Shashi Tharoor has been jumping up and down about this issue.] But this extract from India Unbound by Gurcharan Das is […] August 18, 2018August 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Gurcharan Das concluded that Britain’s colonial prosperity was NOT founded on the exploitation of India I’ve been sporadically writing on this issue and have never had time to sort out all relevant facts. [see my posts here and here. And, of course, Naoroji’s book makes a strong case. And Shashi Tharoor has been jumping up and down about this issue.] But this extract from India Unbound by Gurcharan Das is […] August 18, 2018August 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Atal Bihari Vajpayee – a much more devious man than I had thought Till today I had a relatively neutral view about Vajpayee, but after his death a number of disturbing things about him have started surfacing. Twitter has made it possible for people to share a lot of information. Presumably these pieces of information were already know but had somehow been glossed over. I’ve spent a few minute […] August 17, 2018August 17, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Howard Stern and Robin Quivers badmouthing India (2001). Much of it is true and Modi is not helping with his cow talk. India had a hopelessly deplorable image at least till relatively recently. This audio snippet, that is recirculating a 2001 talk between Stern and his co-host Robin Quivers, relates to the era when Delhi had the old airport and everything was in shambles. Now, clearly Stern is not racist in any way. After all, Robin is […] August 16, 2018August 16, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Fraser Anning has been very unfairly treated for his maiden speech I was intrigued by Fraser Anning’s maiden speech [Video here] and thought I’d review it including with annotations. I find upon detailed review that this man has been very unfairly maligned. I believe that in a free society DEMOCRATIC VOICES like him need to be heard. Any objections to his views can be debated on merit. I […] August 16, 2018August 16, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Freedom of speech is also a freedom to keep quiet It appears to me that the freedom to speak and freedom to keep quiet are opposite sides of the same coin. Freedom to speak is not compulsion to speak. This freedom to keep quiet is much broader than the right to silence to prevent self-incrimination. It is at the heart of the meaning of freedom […] August 15, 2018August 15, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Towards a theory of infrastructure – what is infrastructure and who should pay for it This has been a vexed issue that’s beset by close to utter confusion in the economics literature. I wrote about this issue here last year but I’m unable to locate any consistent first-principles approach to this question. The issue of infrastructure is closely inter-related to town planning and zoning. Unpacking the matter is now becoming […] August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Amazing that USA had constitutional prohibition on liquor. An object lesson for everyone in public policy. This! This is a truly monumental documentary. Even the most obtuse and confused can completely understand the basic principles of economics and public policy by just watching this riveting documentary. EVERYONE WITH AMBITIONS FOR PUBLIC POLICY OR PUBLIC LIFE SHOULD SEE THIS. (I watched it on Netflix but it is freely available online). Original link August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Austrian economists and Ayn Rand Objectivists can benefit from standard i.e. “neo-classical” (classical liberal) economics I’m copying this article from the GMU website to my blog, since it is hard to read it on that website. Also I’ll be able to annotate it here, and highlight any important comments. Thanks to Joyson Fernandes for bringing it to my attention. [Btw, do see Caplan’s lectures here and – of course, I […] August 8, 2018August 9, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Austrian economists and Ayn Rand Objectivists can benefit from standard i.e. “neo-classical” (classical liberal) economics I’m copying this article from the GMU website to my blog, since it is hard to read it on that website. Also I’ll be able to annotate it here, and highlight any important comments. Thanks to Joyson Fernandes for bringing it to my attention. [Btw, do see Caplan’s lectures here and – of course, I […] August 8, 2018August 9, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Please download and share my free book on economics for children: Seeing the Invisible Yesterday I’ve published the first edition of Seeing the Invisible. Please download from here: http://efc.sabhlokcity.com/download-free/ From the data, around 65 copies of Seeing the Invisible were downloaded yesterday. Over 170 people visited the book’s website.  That’s a pretty good start – now I look forward to feedback from at least a few persons and will […] August 5, 2018August 6, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Was Jane Jacobs a force for the good or for evil? I showed here how John Ruskin exercised a baneful influence on liberty in the 19th century – particularly on urban landscapes. Jane Jacobs was a similarly influential figure in the 20th century. The jury has been out on Jane Jacobs for a while. I was keenly intersted in this article: How Should We Interpret Jane Jacobs? published yesterday, […] August 1, 2018August 1, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Who owns these primarily online news portals in India? I’m trying to figure out who owns what – so I’m more aware of where I get any articles published in the future. Here’s an initial list: scroll.in: US-based digital publishing company Scroll Media Inc founded in 2012 by Samir Patil (CEO), an alumnus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. – details. Indian alexa rank 150 […] July 29, 2018July 29, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Chronology of the slippery slope – or the descent of the West into socialism The West has been led by progressives for over a hundred years now, and it is very hard to distinguish between various political parties – all of them being far to the left of the classical liberal position. Here are some key milestones in the descent of the West into a socialist quagmire. Note that […] July 27, 2018July 28, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Civil Service Reforms – by Dr G. Sundaram. I thank Dr G Sundaram IAS (retd.) 1962 batch for sending me his article on civil service reforms (PDF here, Word version here). I’ll review and comment on it separately. Civil Service Reforms – by Dr G. Sundaram (Gujarat – 1962) At the outset, I must say that Civil Service Reforms is difficult subject and […] July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Moving governments towards price discriminatory taxation and fees – using an Opportunity Card In 2009 I published two articles in Freedom First outlining a theory of public finance underpinned by a perfectly price discriminating model. These articles are available here: first, second. The real issue with price discrimination remains the cost of assessing the individual willingness to pay and hence the potential consumer surplus (or loss – if […] July 24, 2018July 25, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A response to objections to Modi’s reforms of the bureaucracy I’ve been asked my views on this article: Subservience over Efficiency: The Prime Minister & Civil Service ‘Reforms’ – JAWHAR SIRCAR This matter has been also discussed in other recent articles, so I’ll provide a consolidated view including on matters raised also in the following articles: Lateral Entry into Senior Bureaucracy: A Flawed Approach – K. ASHOK VARDHAN […] July 21, 2018July 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
What SBP needs at this stage – and urgently I’m reverting back to SBP issues after a month’s break. Will continue to focus mainly on writing, but have shared a few thoughts with SBP leadership. My suggestion has been that the four main leaders in urban areas work together to build a movement against the BJP government. It needs to have an economic focus – something […] July 16, 2018July 16, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The case of AT Exports and why the Wasans need to look at the bigger picture Came across In their shoes – a documentary on Netflix. I’ve uploaded a small section of the documentary here: My tweets: @sabharwalatul Excellent leather documentary that I just saw on Netflix. Not sure whether you are interested, but India’s overall story is a huge thing to be documented. India is a colossal failure of public […] July 1, 2018July 1, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Where Milton Friedman fell short in his assessment of “The Role of Government in Education” (1955) In this 1955 article, which informs Freedom and Capitalism (which was published in 1962), Friedman comes close – even alludes to tangentially in a few places – to the solution I’ve been talking about for two decades, and wrote about in my 2008 book, BFN. But he does allow a range of convoluted and indefensible […] July 1, 2018July 1, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why leaders matter MUCH MORE than culture or religion My FB note: There are books (e.g. by Robert Wilken) that claim that Christianity has something to do with liberty. That this claim is false is clearly seen when we examine the progress of the following countries over the past century. Christianity did nothing to make these countries more free or to create a demand […] June 28, 2018June 28, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Modi uses my copy of the Emergency newspaper cutting – pretty weird Modi issued half page ads in newspapers yesterday. Prominently featured in the ad was the scanned copy of the front page of a newspaper of that day that I had kept with me at the end of Class X. I was in Hyderabad when the Emergency was declared. We moved to Jullundur just a few […] June 28, 2018June 28, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The miserable economics education of Indian Administrative Service officials A so-called economist who doesn’t understand economics can obviously never explain economics to the people. We had professors of economics at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie in 1982-84, who failed to teach the most basic concepts about the market and the price system. That’s because they did not understand these […] June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Modern economics begins with Hayek, who made the invisible hand visible Adam Smith identified the invisible hand but had no idea how it works. People like Marx then went off on a complete tangent using the labour theory of value. Menger, Jevons and Walras demolished the labour theory of value in the 1860s and 1870s. They were getting close enough but still did not understand how […] June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
From economics to action – my 1999 draft paper – to be completed one day While completing my doctoral studies I started writing this paper for potential publication in some academic journal. Due to extreme RSI the paper never got completed. Note that I not only had extreme RSI from around end-1998 due to intensive typing for India Policy Institute, but also had to complete my dissertation by April 1999 […] June 23, 2018June 23, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Discovery of a brilliant liberal scientist of Indian origin – C.S. Prakash Due to the accident of his commenting on my TOI agriculture article, I found time to study the work of CS Prakash, and I’m deeply impressed. I wonder how I missed getting to know about him and his work till now. I suppose I’ve paid more attention to economists of Indian origin than to scientists […] June 23, 2018June 23, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Looking for serious money to support a full-fledged training institute for SBP The RSS took decades of “prachar” to spread its message to the people. Our party’s ideology is entirely different but we should probably follow the same long-term strategy to create an umbrella of paid pracharaks across the length and breadth of India. I am now looking for financial support and land to establish a training […] June 21, 2018June 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
My next planned TOI articles on behalf of SBP After five articles in TOI I’m now planning a few more. My plan, in chronological order: a) To send by mid-August: On mining reform b) To send by mid-November: On education reform c) To send by mid-February 2019: On water reform d) To send by mid-May 2019: On urban planning reform I’ve already finished one […] June 21, 2018June 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Response to comments on my TOI agriculture article I have compiled below some comments on my agriculture article. And a brief response, as appropriate, in blue. Very few sensible people in India, as these comments show. ===SOURCE TIMES OF INDIA == Raghavan Srinivasan: I agree with the author that the Government must be kept off from agriculture. Farming if done well will not need […] June 21, 2018June 21, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How India’s senior most IAS officers lack even the basic knowledge of incentives I’m avoiding India and trying to focus on some writing, but once in a while I might still make a comment or two about the mess that is India. In this video, recorded yesterday, I outline my experience with some senior IAS officers who continue to display deep-rooted ignorance about the role incentives play in society. No wonder […] June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
My agriculture reform article in TOI and comment by Kisaan Putra Andolan I’m not engaging with India at the moment, being on a sabbatical + I wish to focus my time/ mind on some essential books and training material. However, two things worth noting: a) My fifth centrepiece article in TOI (and my sixth in all, since 2007): Get out of farmers’ way: In the end government […] June 19, 2018June 19, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A paid Pracharak system for Swarna Bharat Party I’ve alluded to this here, but a bit more detail, below. A key gap we have in India is the insufficient supply of highly trained trainers for liberalism. I intend to set up a training institute for SBP in the coming year/s, which would comprise a group of highly paid proponents of economics and liberty. It […] June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Reverting to book writing after a gap of over seven years My sabbatical finally gives me breathing space to read and write. For seven years my work has been almost entirely in support of political liberalism in India. This has included massive amount of time and effort to build and manage Swarna Bharat Party. Now, that is behind me – at least for the foreseeable future. […] June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why am I on a political sabbatical? – a video blog In this video blog I respond to a number of people who’ve written to me, to clarify matters. My key message: I’ve not resigned from Swarna Bharat Party nor do I intend to do so. I expect everyone involved in promoting liberalism in India to take this forward to the best of their ability. Original […] June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
On sabbatical I’m taking a sabbatical from all Indian issues. Although I remain a member of Swarna Bharat Party, I will no longer lead the party or engage politically. Comments on this blog have been disabled. I want to stop thinking about India completely. Therefore, I will now unfriend all Indian friends on social media, including leaders […] June 17, 2018June 18, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
